Contact: David Almasi at 202/543-4110 x106
or Virgil Beato at 202/543-4110 x101
or [email protected]

Black Activists Decry
Negative Reagan Media Coverage

Members of the African-American leadership
network Project 21 are taking issue with remarks being made by
members of the television news media who are reporting that the
Reagan Administration did not help black Americans during the
1980s and that Ronald Reagan himself had a poor relationship
with blacks.

For example, during the coverage of memorials
for the late president, ABC News host George Stephanopoulos said
Reagan "did not reach out to African-Americans." ABC
News anchor Peter Jennings, commenting on the public visitation
at the Reagan Library, said, "we haven't seen many African-American
faces."

Project 21 member Mychal Massie, who
waited in line five-and-a-half hours to view Reagan's casket
in the Capitol Rotunda, said, "It is appalling that the
Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaws, Dan Rathers and Sam Donaldsons of
the media elite would surrender themselves to such morally opprobrious
and vacuous pabulums of untruths and misrepresentations regarding
the relationship that the late President Reagan shared with blacks
in America. Ronald Reagan saw American as a pluralistic whole
and worked to address her concerns as such. Their jaundiced rhetoric,
while beneath contempt, is obviously not out of character for
them."

Project 21 member Gregory Parker adds:
"Those who say such things are not looking around hard enough.
I grew up with him as president, and he was the reason I became
a conservative."

Regarding allegations that Reagan's policies
did not help blacks, Project 21 member Deroy Murdock notes, "Rising
employment and opportunities for entrepreneurship helped grow
the black middle class during the Reagan years." Project
21 member James Coleman adds, "Black businesses and businesses
owned by women prospered greatly in the 80s." As an example
of Reagan's connection to black America, President Reagan corresponded
with Ruddy Hines, a black elementary school student in Washington,
D.C., throughout his presidency.

"Ronald Reagan always highlighted
the best of America and its people regardless of skin color,"
said Project 21 member Jerry Brooks. "He spoke of hope and
opportunity for all Americans."